Within the next 18 months, customers of PLDT Inc. who are still using copper-based Internet connectivity will be migrated for free to fiber to provide better services amid the ongoing national health crisis.
Manuel V. Pangilinan, who chairs the telco titan, said his Covid-19 has set the group’s agenda for the foreseeable future: To help rebuild the country through the digital economy.
“At the outset, our task was clearly to keep people connected as the country went into lockdown. Moving forward, we will grow our business by helping our customers—and the country—rebuild their lives and livelihoods with powerful connectivity like fiber, 4G and now 5G, combined with innovative digital solutions,” he said.
This, Smart Communications Inc. President Alfredo S. Panlilio explained, entails modernizing its network to meet the demand for connectivity, a very critical aspect for those who are working from their homes or studying remotely.
“With this modernization program, PLDT sets out to reinforce the drive to install new fiber connections and meet the ever-increasing demand for high-speed internet access for more homes and businesses. It is an essential need, especially in these times of the Covid-19 pandemic,” he said.
The program will benefit both consumers and enterprises.
As of the first half of 2020, PLDT has reached 7.8 million homes through its 3.67 million ports. It likewise has a total fiber optic network footprint of about 360,000 kilometers.
PLDT is the Philippines’s largest and only integrated telco company. Through its principal business groups—from fixed line to wireless—PLDT offers a wide range of telecommunications and digital services across the Philippines’ most extensive fiber optic backbone, and fixed line and cellular networks.
The company said last month that it hopes to sustain growth momentum throughout the rest of the year, even as it expressed concern over the prospects for the second half due to the technical recession. In the first half, PLDT booked P13.9 billion in telco core income, a 5-percent increase versus the P13.2 billion registered the year prior as its individual, home, and enterprise businesses also posted positive results during the period.